As a young junior-college coach for eight seasons in Dodge City, Kan., and Daytona Beach, Fla., Brad Underwood had to learn how to handle young rosters year after year. At that level of college basketball, it’s an annual roster full of freshmen.

“You learn to adapt when you’re a junior-college coach,” Underwood said Thursday at Big Ten media day in Rosemont. “Every year, you know there’s going to be a certain level of immaturity you have to navigate and deal with. I’ve reflected back on those days a lot.”

The lessons he learned — the psychology of dealing with players’ first-game nerves, melding personalities, finding empathy for homesick teenagers — are coming in handy again for Underwood.

In his second season at Illinois, Underwood’s roster is unexpectedly almost all new again. He has eight newcomers, including six freshmen, and only four returning scholarship players. It’s not the 2018-19 cast anyone expected during the 2017-18 season.

Underwood said he tells himself, “OK, Brad, you have to be patient.”

“And there’s going to be those moments,” he said. “There are similarities, no doubt. You look at it with the inexperience of the roster and games played, it’s very much like a junior-college roster.”

Except the Illini play in the Big Ten. And they’ll be playing one of the nation’s toughest schedules with nonconference games against Gonzaga and Notre Dame.

How Underwood handles this young roster could very well define his future at Illinois and that of the program.

Six players left with eligibility remaining since the end of last season, including leading scorer and rebounder Leron Black, who decided to pursue a pro career. Guard Mark Smith, the prize of the 2017 recruiting class and the state’s Mr. Basketball that year, transferred to Missouri, and forward Michael Finke left as a graduate transfer for Grand Canyon. Point guard Te’Jon Lucas (Milwaukee) and big man Greg Eboigbodin (Northeastern) also transferred.

Guard Trent Frazier, coming off a promising freshman season, is now being counted on to demonstrate leadership. He reportedly has engaged in competitive backcourt battles with freshman dynamo Ayo Dosunmu, a top-50 national recruit from Morgan Park.

Frazier said when players were leaving the program after a disappointing 14-18 season, his initial thoughts were pessimistic.

“The roster is definitely different,” said Frazier, who ranked second on the team with 12.5 points per game. “We have four veterans and all new guys. At first I’m thinking to myself, ‘Man, this is about to be another rebuilding year.’

“As we got into practices, you could see we bonded really quick. The chemistry is unbelievable. Our ball movement right now is unbelievable. We play with each other really well.”

Underwood also said he doesn’t like to think of this as a reset or a rebuild. But he did say: “What we’re doing is laying a tremendous foundation. It’s about growth for us.”

Patience and foundation building. Sound familiar?

The same things have been preached across the street from the State Farm Center at Memorial Stadium under Illinois football coach Lovie Smith, who is seeing gradual improvement in his third season.

Nobody could blame Illini fans for groaning at the idea of another team in Champaign requiring patience. The basketball team hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2013, and fans expected the 2018-19 roster to have experience in and understanding of Underwood’s offensive sets.

Giorgi Bezhanishvili, a 6-foot-9 freshman forward, will see time in the post. Underwood called Adonis De La Rosa, a 7-foot graduate transfer from Kent State, “a basketball savant.” And of course, much is expected of Dosunmu, a tenacious defender who led Morgan Park to the Class 3A state championship.

But a media poll picked Illinois to finish 13th in the Big Ten — and it’s not a dis. There are too many unknowns to predict success.

It’s up to Underwood to keep this season from being written off as yet another rebuild.

“I feel like we’re on (the right) path,” Underwood said. “Nothing is easy. Nobody said it would be, nor do we expect it to be. We’re going to work as hard as we can.”